Council votes to "Ban the Box," Mayor gives update on CSO Program

July 30, 2013

A resolution urging the Akron Civil Service Commission to change its hiring practices towards convicted felons was passed unanimously by Council Monday evening. Several area cities recently implemented similar “ban the box” policies, which include removing the conviction history question from job applications for non-safety positions. Before the meeting, Mayor Don Plusquellic gave Council members an update and a history lesson on the city’s Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Program.The city is being ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to stop discharges from combined sewers into the Cuyahoga River. The mayor estimated the remedies will cost $870 million and take a decade or longer to complete. He pointed out that the city has been making repairs to the sewer system for decades and has already reduced untreated overflow volume in the system by one-third.